Friday, 9 June 2017

Debby (nb Chuffed) left a comment suggesting I should try embracing the lawn rather than feel compelled to attack the weeds. I tried that this morning lolling around on the grass and staring up at the blue sky before my other half kicked in and I sneakily managed to rip three clumps of clover out whilst they weren’t watching. This might have continued, except it was the coldest Perth winter morning in years (1c).

It’s actually been a rather busy day. We purchased a new TV to replace the old Pioneer plasma which is boat energy hungry and makes growling noises. Perhaps in consternation about my actions with the clover. Now we have a rental car it’s possible to get around the shops. This morning we visited the three closest after doing some online research which identified the bargain set as a 58” Hisense 4K ULED. This isn’t a top range TV and was on special at $995. All the shops prices were within $3 of each other so naturally we went with the cheapest and purchased it from The Good Guys at Malaga. Everything was going well until I tried to fit the set in the boot of the car. The problem was length as I’d already lowered the back seats. The damned TV was too wide. The storeman told me I’d have to pay for delivery at $70. No way was I going to pay $70 and I phoned my brother who has a Toyota 4x4 asking if he would collect it. Well what are relatives for. Actually we’re very grateful for his assistance.

Once the TV was home we removed the old TV from the top of the cabinet and unpacked the new TV. That’s when we discovered ‘size matters’. The base of the Hisense 58” TV was longer than the top of the cabinet. Another problem to overcome. My temporary solution was to make a trip to Bunnings (Bunnings recently purchased Homebase in the UK). I managed to buy a length of white melamine particle board which I’ve temporarily fixed to the top of the cabinet with clamps.

Red arrows point to the clamps and you might able able to see that the white particle board extends beyond the cabinet at the right end. The TV isn’t HDR capable or a Premium UHD set, but that doesn’t matter because it will eventually go on the wall in our bedroom when we move into our new house.

I’ve connected the NVidia Shield to the TV where it will be the client end of our planned home media streaming network.

The ADSL internet connection to the house was activated today and I spent much of the afternoon configuring the router and local network. I’m halfway through configuring the extended network which will include a second router. The plan is to run two networks in the house. There will be an unsecured wifi network (password protected) and a secured network involving a VPN.

I’ve tested the internet speed and it’s woeful. Download is 3.7mbs and upload is 0.8mbs. A 4G mobile phone in the UK usually runs at 12mbs. Australian politicians are always feeding the electorate the line that Australia is the ‘lucky country’ and has the best internet in the world!

This blog is about us, Tom and Jan.
After a decade of travelling from 'down-under' every two years to spend a brief few weeks having a wonderful canal holiday we decided to eliminate the travel and do it full time on retirement. In 2011 we moved to the UK and built Waiouru before spending 6 wonderful years cruising.
In 2017 we sold our lovely boat and moved back to Perth, West Australia where other adventures are on the 'bucket list'.